Most of you should be familiar with Video Games Live by now, especially if you’ve been around here towards the end of each week. I usually put up a “Friday Night Concert” post, exposing you all to video game music performed by professionals musicians. Often times, that professional ensemble is Video Games Live. This past Saturday, a few of us around here actually got to catch their performance live for the first time, and we liked what we saw.

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Happy Halloween! Anyone dressed as a video game character? Or better yet, anyone playing any scary games?

Believe it or not, I’m actually spending a lot of today listening to scary video game soundtracks. I’ve essentially got this haunted house of Halloween decorations, and I’m using game music to set the mood. There’s a lot of Fatal Frame, Resident Evil, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Assassin’s Creed… and Castlevania. I figured something from the latter would be appropriate for tonight, so enjoy Video Games Live’s performance of Castlevania music!

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Sometime last year, Christian and myself tried to make a list of our favorite videogame music of all time. What seemed like a good idea at the time quickly turned sour when 70% of my list was dedicated Mega Man music.

What can I say? I’m just a huge fan of the blue bomber’s melodies.

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I grew up on piano and guitar. I’ve played both since I was about five, as opposed to my woodwind background which began when I was ten. Of course, if the school had an orchestra program, I’d probably have opted to stick with strings. Probably cello or something.

This week’s concert is from the 2008 Ai-Kon anime convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A string quartet plus piano group known as Quintessence shows off what years of string instruction can give you. Now, those of you lucky enough to have been in Canada at the time got to see the whole show. Tonight, unfortunately, you’re just getting a look at their Super Mario Bros. arrangement. Still, it’s five minutes of fun, so enjoy!

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This week, we’ll listen to the The Big Band Of Rogues perform the ending theme to Super Mario Bros. 3, as performed at the Nihon Seinenkan Hall back on September 14th, 2003. It’s not the greatest jazz band in the world, but I’ll bet if any of them are gamers, they’re having a ton of fun.

That said, there are no gamers in that saxophone section. I think I’ve seen drying paint that’s more exciting to watch. Keep that in mind, you current or aspiring musicians - the performance is just an important as the ability to play a piece!

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Short concert this week. Yasunori Mitsuda’s score for Chrono Cross was among the best for any PlayStation game, and any game of its time. I’m sure many of you loved the game, loved the music, but never really got a chance to just listen to it.

The video above is the Eminence Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the intro piece, “Time’s Scar,” at the beginning of the game. The original guitar solo was performed by Tomohiko Kira, though Zane Banks does a pretty good job taking over for the Eminence edition. That’s James Fortune on the flute - unfortunately drowned out a little bit - followed by Hiroaki Yura on Violin, with Philip Chu conducting.

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It’s baseball season! We’ll go with Super Mario tunes for the next couple of weeks of concerts, leading up to the launch of Mario Super Sluggers. Whoa. Forgot that was coming, didn’t you?

Mario themes are super popular with percussion ensembles for that non-challenging, novelty piece during a percussion ensemble concert. As such, it was not hard at all to find something to pick for this week. I decided to go with an April 15, 2007 performance by the Rollins College Percussion Ensemble - I figured better instruments, more experienced players, and hopefully more mature musicians than the high school ensemble videos out there.

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We didn’t get anything Zelda last week, so I’ll give you a little bit tonight. This Friday Night Concert concert features what looks like a collegiate piano recital performing a medley of tunes from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The arrangement was done by Duncan Blickenstaff.

Enjoy!

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As of right now, this list could very well be completely fabricated. But, it’s great to see what could be, and then get angry later when it turns out your favourite song isn’t included right? It does look genuine, and the list itself is worth a glance if not just for the mind boggling effect. See for yourself after the break.

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There’s a reason why I love newer music in older game franchises. Back in the NES days, music was reduced to the bare minimum: a melody, a harmony, a bass line, and percussion. Not surprisingly, those are the aspects I’m being trained to teach band students. When you get orchestral renditions in Super Mario Galaxy or Twilight Princess, it’s fleshed out beautifully, and it works because all the components are still there. A lot of the original music in newer franchises lack that core, and it’s really just fancy “fluff.”

Remember that Mega Man 9 Trailer that was released not too long ago? It’s got NES-style music. Not surprisingly, it’s got the basis for what could end up being a memorable soundtrack. It’s even caught on with the fans…what, after 3 days? The Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra (which is really just a guy with a ukulele and a mixer) has recorded a cover of the new Mega Man 9 trailer music, of course in addition to other works at his website below including versions of F-Zero, Kid Icarus, and Metal Gear Solid.

Be sure to head on over and click the link included to have a listen. Oh, and someone keep an eye on OCR - let me know if anything good pops up.

Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra
via Insert Credit